Correction of previous comment: Socotra Island (SCT) international airport (Yemen) has a 3,300 meter asphalt landing field which is over 10,00 feet. 8,100 feet is the required distance to land for the B777-200. Flight MH 730 would have been able to land there. Most of the flight across the Indian Ocean could have been at a higher altitudes to gain distance and go undetected while the world's attention was focused on (or distracted to) the area where the plane went off the radar. There existed the risk that the info from the motor blips would be relayed to the searching parties but such coordination didn't exists so the gamble by the hijackers was successful. My guess is that there were others on the flight to assist the hijackers get the cell phones or even fly the plane! After landing, the empty plane either was hidden or was refueled and flown to a nearby airstrip to be hidden. My guess/wish is that the passengers may be alive on the beautiful island. The plane may be repainted similar to another airline and used as a long ranged bomber. I hope the first part is correct and the passengers are OK. The second part is the scary part. So get satellite pictures of Socotra.

This is something I thought of many years ago. I'm a writer and thought of this idea for a film. My idea had them taking the now MH370 aircraft and completely gut it by taking out the galley, seat, etc. Then they would load the aircraft with the absolute minimum fuel required leaving the available empty weight to be used for explosives. The entire aircraft could fly right into the heart of any city and basically level it. They just need to file a fake flight plan, match the livery on the airplane to match what they file. They can join up and flying right into JFK until you report a missed approach and fly into downtown Manhattan. I sure hope that doesn't happen anywhere but it is possible.

That's what I'm thinking - hell, they may even just load up on avgas and turn the plane into one massive missile - the jet fuel will burn for a long period of time afterwards, destroying the structural integrity of any building they hit. Basically it's 9/11 all over again.

If this is possibility I would like to know wind conditions for that day compared to other days, if wind was favoriting this route for that day more than any previous day your theory might be partially true.

I think this site ranks high on the likely destinations this plane may have went. It fits right in the 7 hour window they said the plane was flying, and in range with the amount of fuel that would have been on board for it's flight. As you state, it's pretty remote, has a runway large enough to support it and is near a country with known terrorist ties. Everything fits with the current known parameters. I would hope though the US and other countries would come to the same conclusion and are fully investigating the site. Excellent analysis!!

I travel by 777 regularly transpacific. My opinion of this aircraft is that the only way to bring this plane down is flying it into something through sheer stupidity (SFO), or blowing it out of the sky. Hyperbole of course, (Boeing Fanboy), but this is a fantastic airplane.

I stand corrected. Information from Flightradar24 shows that the aircraft (9M-MRO) is 11.5 years old.

It's worth noting, however, that the aircraft was involved in a ground accident with a China Eastern A340 in China. However, I believe that the Chinese maintenance crews are first rate. So maybe a structural failure/fatigue isn't the cause.

The chain of causality in the AF447 included several factors that are directly tied to the Airbus flight deck design philosophy, like: fly by joystick, controls not providing tactile feedback of the inputs from the person in the other seat. So this incident wouldn't really be an AF447. The pitot tubes freezing over was also sn issue that was particular to Airbus. The flight deck alarm that sounded only when the copilot tried to push the nose back down is also part of the flight deck logic built into the Airbus A330.

So all we're left is maybe one or more of the pilots not knowing how to recover from a stall at cruising altitude. So not too much to have in common.

I'm more concerned about the copilot locking the captain out when he got up to use the lav. Unfortunately, there have been incidents like that, including in the recent past. And we haven't seen the last of those.

Secondly, that crash on the ground last year might have resulted in fatigue/ failure of a structural element.

Yeah the A330 auto throttles don't move the levers either so it took a while (too long) for them to figure out to adjust the levers. Initially (initially)supposed to be in anomalous airspeed 80% throttle nose up 5%. Yep and joysticks are for games not airliners. The magenta people - love that video of that seminar. This one unlike FT447 was good weather and markedly different aircraft with good pitot tubes!. Will be interested in a year or two in the final report.

The incompetence of the first officer's flying skills was implicated.So was the faulty logic of the A330 that alarmed whenever the errant pilot tried lowering the nose of the plane.Also implicated was the design of the A330 cockpit, particularly the joystick controller that allowed an entire plane of pasengers to get pushed into the ovean by the incompetent piloy inadvertently, and without the other pilot knowing what he was doing.

So it wasn't about fly by wire. It was about bad design of the Airbus flight deck. The poor flying skills of that first officer didn't help any, either. But the 2 together was fatal for 228 souls.

This is really disturbing, two passports were both stolen in Thailand, one more passport number and name did not match the record according to Chinese official in Fujian province. there three tickets was booked through CZ system since MH370 code sharing flight. I do not work in aviation industry, but what we know right now does not really make sense at all. What could possibly happen to cause aircraft to lose contact all of sudden and even without any trace of distress signal?

I just watch a clip of Chinese media (Hongkong based) referencing the similar incident happened to South Korean flight that two north Korean agents using fake passports and detonated a bomb when the plane was flying over Andaman Sea.

The last 2 data points show "0" altitude so the sensor has failed. Why? Pitot tube has been taken out or a massive electrical failure that takes out transponder 2 minutes later. Pitot tube fail from a/c impact. Elec. failure leads to fire.

I agree with you Ethan. A B-777 has a almost perfect safety record. Asiana put that in the record books....we all know that. An airplane just doesn't fall out of the sky. The bird is down and it's all speculation right now as to what happened. I can't rule out terrorism or mechanical failure...which I doubt. It is always sad when a bird goes down and most likely we won't find out what the hell happened until they can retreive the "Box". God bless the "Crew and Pax". R.I.P.

After 8 days, the banana republic is finally saying there was human intervention, aka pilot suicide or outright hijacking. To me, basically a week wasted; if it did crash in water to the West, debris is probably gone by now. Personally, I think it has been hijacked by that militant Muslim group that wants a breakaway and is in Western China, and this whole search is just a smokescreen for either negotiations on pax release or a raid in planning to get them. I might as well throw my 2cts in. Everybody else has. LOL

Interesting Theory ! The Chinese are ultra secretive and the Malay government is so corrupt complacent and prejudice towards any of their non indigenous Malay citizens they treat Chinese Malaysian with contempt.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said officials had not ruled out hijacking as a cause of the plane’s disappearance. He said all reported sightings of debris from the plane in the seas south of Vietnam were unconfirmed. FULL STORY IS HERE http://goo.gl/kYKiHn

No matter the reason, I do have to commend Malaysia on their speedy response, from the website to the press conference. Gives me much more faith that it's a well managed airline that I would still consider flying in the future. Huge difference from the Asiana crash. It's like Asiana wanted to pretend nothing happened!

Actually, it turns out, they waited hours after they were notified that radar contact was lost, to say anything publicly about the flight. It seems that word only came out after the plane's scheduled arrival time came and went without an actual airplane.

Then they shared some information. But after an entire day of searching, they've only shared a little info, eg. The passenger manifest and that oil slicks were found.

It's now been the second night that the plane has been missing. It will be daylight again soon. So hopefully we'll start getting more info. But it seems they are holding their cards close to their chest. They are not telling us all that they know.

I've given them the benefit of the doubt, hoping tgAt they've used the lack of timely disclosure to more effectively gather intel on potential cooperative terrorists that provided material assistance.

But I wouldn't necessarily commend their openness of communication.

In comparing to Asiana, remember there were many injured passengers and crew. There were also lots of eyewitbeses and video.

In this case, Malaysia has rooms filled with family members, without providing much remarkable concrete info about their loved ones. There have also been complaints that the families have only been fed water and bread, despite being in an emotional jail.

The second day is about to begin. So hopefully we'll get a whole new batch of Infirmation.

I think we've all come to expect instant information in the 24/7 internet age. Asiana occurred in broad daylight, in front of probably a couple of hundred people & in a major news market; still there was a lot of confusion & misinformation flying about even a few days later. I'm not surprised that verifiable information is slow coming out especially if they haven't confirmed the location. Also the governments in the area aren't known for"playing well" with each other.Asiana just got fined for lack of a disaster play, Malaysia may be in the same boat.

With over 48 hours passed since the time that the plane lost contact with ATC, we can all agree that information about the plane at the time of the incident has not been forthcoming.

The most significant information released by the airline was the passenger manifest, which led independent parties to verify that stolen passports were used to board flight. It's been mostly silence since then.

The manifest release happened soon after announcement of missing plane. Made it seem to some that they were being quick to share info. But in reality that airline had been notified many hours earlier that the plane was lost/ not in contact. The airline had many hours to prepare for that first impression.

Most intriguing report is that in beijing,some claimed that calls made to the passengers' cellphone rang but unanswered. And MAS director of Operations also said calls made to certain crew's mobile phone also rang but not answered .

I wonder if they tried to use cellphone locating service to help locate the airplane. I know cellphone service is not available in remote areas but locating one seems to work even where the service is not available.

Some 20 employees of a semi-conductor manufacturer were onboard. So, there will be a "connecting of the dots" where none actually exist, as people begin to spread utter falsehoods and speculation, and call them "facts".

WELCOME to the "Age of the Internet", where everyone with a computer and Web access can foul the air with their "theories".

Actually one can give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that they're running an effective post-incident counter-terrorism investigation (or trying to).

Also, they must just look impotent and incompetent in the face of just having had one of their airliners blown up in mid-flight, being caught flatfooted letting passengers board their flight with stolen passports. They may just be counting the cost of the lawsuit layouts, and realize they gave nothing meaningful to add to the public discourse.

Take your pick. Neither is conspiratorial.

If I wanted to suggest a conspiracy I would be tempted to go in a completely different direction:

I would suggest that Vietnamese or Chinese fighters escorted the plane to a remote military airfield, jamming radio and/or radar contact with MH370 during that encounter.

Also, a Vietnamese fighter could've accidently crashed into the passenger airliner whole practicing. The rest is a cover up by the Vietnamese. Or the same story with a Chinese fighter and a Chinese cover up.

So in short, there are no shortness of conspiracy theories that one can imagine. None if which has any bearing on whether Malaysia is dragging their feet in the provision of information. Personally, I don't find that they were quick at all in disseminating info, with the exception of one item: releasing the passenger manifest the day after the plane was lost from radar.

I was surprised to find the actual passenger manifest published in one of the on-line articles I found yesterday (unfortunately don't remember which) -- isn't that supposed to be confidential info? We can't call up an airline to ask if someone is on board by name these days. Or is that only on domestic US flights??

Someone knows a lot more than they're sharing publicly. There may be legitimate reasons for doing so, like terrorism investigation.

But there are clear signs that information is being withheld from the public.

1. Maylasia Airlines was notified by the Vietnamese early in the course of the flight that radar contact was lost. They only acknowledged that fact the following morning AFTER the plane failed to arrive at Beijing.

2. Two full days of clear weather and sunlight without reports of having found floating airplane wreckage flotsam. If a large airliner crashes into water, there will be floating debris. There are some reports now (after dark locally) that some debris may have been found. We'll see.

But it seems that there is some attemp to delay the spread of information. It may in fact be or reasonable purposes. But that is the opposite of what's claimed above that Malaysia is being very open and forthcoming with info. I wouldn't say that.

Someone is not telling what they know. Maybe the airline. Maybe the Vietnamese. But someone is holding back.

Yes, that is what upsets me so much about this whole "oil slick" situation. Any airliner that has contact with the water is going to leave wreckage. I keep thinking of the footage of Alaska Air 261 that was taken within the hour of it hitting the Pacific. It was easy to see where it went down. The same is true about Swissair 111 and EgyptAir 990. I can't get it out of my head, I admit it: where in the hell did this airliner GO? A 777 doesn't just vanish, but where is it? (Thanks for listening, I am very upset about this)

Yep agree - seems in such a high shipping area and aircraft transit area and ships searching along with aircraft. It was last reported lost off radar at 1:30 NZ time and its now just after 9:00 here and a possible sighting of a door. Something is wrong here.

Exactly. The depth of the water alone is shallow enough to find debris and the recorders still ping. The lack of surface debris is also intruiging. This is a turning point day because decomposing remains will appear on the surface as they did with Air France.

HEARTBREAKING: Daughter of Chief Steward of #MalaysiaAirlines Tweets Messages To Her Dad Urging Him to 'COME BACK' http://www.roomeetimes.com/heartbreaking-daughter-of-mh370-chief-steward-shares-grief-and-convern-on-twitter.html

Looking at the route, at the time of losing the contact, that would put the flight directly over or slightly to the east of Hong Kong and Macau. If something did happen, there surely should have been some witnesses to see something. If not, either transponder turning off or 7500?

Xinhua has stated that the aircraft was lost over Vietnamese airspace.This isn't directed at you: If FlightAware's moderators actually bothered to look at which Squawks were informative vs those that are not, more people would know what happened!

Then please enlighten us to which one is informative, and post the links, please.. Everything that is coming up is saying that it lost contact with Subang ATC, which is still in Malaysia. If it was lost over Vietnam airspace, who has authority over Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Hainan?

Actually, let me correct myself. The flight mentioned above is the one that took place on 3/6/14. That one stopped being tracked over Hong Kong/Macau. The one for 3/7 did indeed stop being tracked over Vietnam.

Link is here:http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140307/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA

Here is another scenario regarding where the airplane may have stopped flying - After the airplane is commandeered at 35,000 feet and the transponders are disabled, it turns westward and is flown to an altitude of 3,000 feet to avoid radar. Now, instead of having a range of 5 to 6 hours at 35,000 feet, the range is cut to 4 hours because of the fuel efficiency at the lower altitude. Boeing says, according to the news reports, that the engine data signals continued after the turn for an additional 4 hours. What would the range be at the end of 4 hours at 3,000 feet? Look there?

Well, this will continue to be a mystery for the time being. I was wondering when a military radar facility would announce...they sometimes have better coverage than ATC.

I'm bracing, now, for the inevitable rash of "conspiracy theories" (as seen after the loss of AF 447). In this InterNet world, there are no shortage of sick individuals who will take this tragedy, and attempt to make something of it that isn't factual, nor relevant.

There are reports that Vietnamese military radar tracked the plane into the sea. Also there are reports that their airforce planes have discovered 2 oil slicks. Depending on distance between the slicks, this would indicate that the plane came apart before impact. Non-intact plane would suggest explosion or catastrophic failure, rather than suicidal copilot.

The collision on ground involved wingtips contact. That does not seem to be the kind of damage that would lead to the kind of catastrophic failure that would prevent a PAN call from pilots.

There are also reports that an Italian listed on the manifest is alive and well in Thailand, and that his passport was stolen months ago. I would be unusual for someone to steal a passport to get into China. Sonic this report is true, it will likely be an indication of terrorism.

It's still way too early to know for sure what happened, there are only a small subset that would prevent the pilots from making a distress call.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are deeply saddened this morning with the news on MH370.

Malaysia Airlines confirms that flight MH370 had lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, today. There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others.

Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft. It departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing. The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time.

The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members. The passengers were of 14 different nationalities - citizens from:-

1. China – 152 plus 1 infant

2. Malaysia - 38

3. Indonesia - 12

4. Australia - 7

5. France - 3

6. United States of America – 3 pax plus 1 infant

7. New Zealand - 2

8. Ukraine - 2

9. Canada - 2

10. Russia - 1

11. Italy - 1

12. Taiwan - 1

13. Netherlands - 1

14. Austria - 1

This flight was a code share with China Southern Airlines.

We are working with authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft.

Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew.

The flight was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a Malaysian aged 53. He has a total flying hours of 18,365hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981. First officer, Fariq Ab.Hamid, a Malaysian, is aged 27. He has a total flying hours of 2,763 hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.

Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support. Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.

Just read the news update from Hongkong based media ifeng.com: one Chinaissued passport in Fujian province, the holder was confirmed that he was not on the flight, passport number and name on the list does not match the record. Besides two stolen passports report... hmm~ this is really confusing now.

Safest part of the flight. I'm concerned that would be the time that the captain could/would get up to use the lav.

That would open up to the possibility of a catastrophic incident that the firs officer wasn't able to handle, or worse that the first officer would've locked the captain out (as had happened in the past).

But I've adjusted to the information that has come to light. The stolen passports suggest that terrorism may have been involved. That there was no distress call suggests sudden catastrophic incident. Together with possible terrorism would point toward explosive device detonated midflight.

If I were the Malaysians, I would've been investagating what happened at KL airport prior to that flight. Everything. Who. What. Where. When. Why. How. (Which may explain the long delay in making the report of the missing plane public, after being notified by ATC that radar contact was lost.)

From the discovery of two separate oil slicks (10 & 15 km long), one can infer that the A/C came apart at altitude. Under a suicide by pilot scenario, how hard would it be to tear a 777 apart deliberately while airborne?

I've discarded the likelihood of ditching, especially if as you say the two oil slicks are far apart. The pilots weren't even able to male a distress call. More information (such as the military radar, transmitted data, debris fields, etc.) will help make a better determination about the last moments of the flight.

Can't find anything yet beyond the number and length. No width or distance. Of course one or both could be unrelated that noone noticed as noone was looking. Occam's razor tends slices toward them being related.

I live in the area where they are searching for the missing plane. I am in possess of the nautical charts with all batimetrics , and the average depth of the waters around To Chau ( Hon Tho Chau) island is 24 meters. This considered, even a Piper's submerged wreckage could be visible from an Search and Rescue plane or chopper flying not over 10,000 ft. A fuselage of a 777 is wide and well visible is such waters. This excludes , in my opinion, an emergency sea-landing , as the wreckage , I repeat, should be well visible. What about the "black boxes"? They should emit a signal. Why this signal has not yet been received by satellites or by the rescue ships and airplanes?

Fascinating and appreciated coming from a local (to that area). I noticed the depths in that region and given the diversity of the nations in that area I wonder how many high tech submarines lie submerged and able to target the ping?

knowing the waters in the area around Phu Quoc and Tho Chau islands, a military submarine can submerge only hundreds of kms west of the searching area. The waters near the Mekong Delta are not enough deep to allow a standard military submarine to navigate in immersion.That's why Vietnamese built Cam Ranh naval base on the middle of the western coast of Vietnam.Immediately south of Phu Quoc island there are a number of sand barrages, rocks, islets, reefs and zones where the navigation is dangerous even for the local fishermen.

well good luck with that,any information will be kept secret until authorities want to feed information,until then the area will be off limits to all except the need to know people,even when they find it you and i will be the last to know,hours later if not more.

Still no confirming what happened to the airplane in the press conference in Beijing. We are sending Antonov An-26 from Tan Son Nhat airport to the site. The 12 southwestern coastal provinces have been put on high alert for search and rescue readiness. IMHO, we'd better not jump to any conclusion about why, until we found physical evidence.

2014年3月8日 波音中国总裁马爱仑@小马哥爱747：The plane is found but our sorrows grow. Our technical assistance team is en route to assist the investigating authorities off the Vietnamese coast. Father God, pls grant comfort to those who have lost loved ones.

Your on an aviation site, so I'll assume you must or at least have some interest in aviation. There is ZERO chance this aircraft could have flown to China without multiple radar hits - IMPOSSIBLE.

The aircraft was at flight level FL350, 2 hours and 1 minute into it's flight at 02:41 - over vast rough terrain (Vietnam). Whatever happened to this aircraft, they did not have time to issue a Pan, Pan, Pan - so be it a catastrophic airframe/aircraft failure, a terrorist act, or pilot suicide - but it's one of the 3.

biz jets, I'm not arguing with you in any way, I was simply adding another story to the lineup of information. Unfortunately, there are numerous rumors going around and this came from a news source, so I thought I'd add to the list of speculation.

I can only hope that people take everything on websites with a grain of salt until Malaysian Air and Boeing comes up with an official report. I was under the impression that this feed was to report any information received on this horrible incident.

I find it amazing that it takes so long to get more concrete information. The latest I heard was an oil slick spotted in the water. Too sad for the families and for everyone who has to suffer shock from another horrific tragedy.

Well that oil slick find was about the last bit of anywhere near concrete information that came out. I am sure that there is more info already known, probably from ACARS but until a full review of all that data can be reviewed, just like on an FDR, I doubt it'll be released. There will be enough speculation proffered on it's own without throwing bits and pieces of that into the mix. LOL

For sure. Based on many posts here, it's better to get accurate information than speculation as many news broadcasts provide. Don't know about you, but it tires me out and I barely remember the true timeline of events. The questions: will we ever know what REALLY happened?

Just got a news flash that there were 2 others who were supposed to be on that flight but reported their passports stolen. Hhhhhhmmmmm!

I'm not in the Aviation business but I travel back and forth to Asia and am quite freaked out about traveling now.You have a great board here and I really appreciate being able to read all of these posts from so many smart people & veteran pilots. I sent the link to my brother who is a former Air Force pilot- he will love this board.Thanks for letting me join you

Wasn't there just an incident yesterday or the day before on another passenger plane flying through the path of a missile in that same region? I hope all is ok but it's not sounding very promising. Prayers to all the families

The airplane could be sitting in a hangar at an airport in North Korea. It had enough fuel to fly that far and Kim Jung Un is known for doing crazy stunts. Airplane could have been taken down to 500 feet at last radar contact and flown to N.Korea at that altitude.

I would say it has as good as any chance that it is presently being repainted in Yemen or Iran as we theorize. And where would they fly it? Load it up with their new nuclear bomb and in to the heart of their great enemy......

True enough. But the balance of probabilities does point to a 40-minute flight duration vs. the 2-hour flight implied by the official media statement. And 2-hours would have put the plane well into Vietnamese territory instead of the Gulf of Thailand. We have to wait till dawn breaks in 4 hours to get proper images of the oil slick. That would confirm that the flight ended around the 0120 GMT+8 ballpark.

With the latest news of this flight flying for several hours after the last control center contact is a little unnerving. I strongly feel the search needs to be at every possible landing place in the middle east or Iran. If this plane was stolen and flown there it can easily show back up on our door step with some dangerous cargo. I think the search should change or include this area very fast.

Yes, whether people like it or not, the US always investigates incidents properly, without making a big deal out of things - quietly.I trust US investigations results more than any other investigation entity, specially those from NTSB. NTSB is a serious entity.I hope NTSB can take the incident under its leadership and responsibility soon, and forget about those Asian government inefficient authorities just interfering in the process.

We're back at square one. There are new revelations that seem to indicate that the stolen passports may have more to do with a stolen passport syndicate than terrorism.

Also, it is being reported that the US has reviewed their infrared satelite data that looks for missile launches, and did not find the signature of a fuel explosion mid-air.

So the plane likely traveled some distance from the point of last radar contact.

Now the question is, where did the plane go?:1. Did it slowly lose altitude and crash into the sea at a point further away and away from where everyone is searching?2. Did they land somewhere (whether at the direction of hijackers or not)?3. Did they crash on land and are covered by the triple canopy jungle endemic in the area?

I am thinking point 1 is the case, but still very odd that all contact was lost and the reports of mumbling on the radio from the pilot that was ahead. Unless for some reason all occupants of the plane succumbed to hypoxia - but surely that would've sent off alarm bells from the monitoring system also.

"The early warning system for the North American Air Defence Command detected no anomalies related to Flight 370, said one of the officials. Norad’s infrared and visual imagery can pick up heat sources such as explosions and missile launches, the official said."

As you and others have pointed out, there is a certain lack of information disclosure. Can we assume the above information is complete?

Latest update is that plane was in air for 7 hours. Could be anywhere in Middle East, Africa,Russia. It looks like the increased altitude was to put the passengers to "sleep". Most likely it is now gutted and hidden, turned into a Cruise Missile. Be some overtime at CIA this weekend.

Just had a bad thought... If not Terrorism, then maybe it could have been crew suicide... This would not have been the first time. Reference "Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771" with a BAE-146... Over the ocean would be an excellent place for it (so to speak) as if the crew disabled all the communications, Pointed the NOSE DOWN and that kind of impact in the water would literally leave nothing to very little to investigate....

That was my thought when I read the Muslim sounding names of the pilots. Particularly yr younger pilot could've been radicalized while flying for the airline.

Vietnamese airforce planes have been reported to have found TWO large oil slicks. Ifbit turns out there is a large separation between them, it would indicate that the plane likely broke apart prio to impact. That would make suicide by pilot less likely. Catastrophic failure would be what's left, either due to an explosion or structural failure.

The plane is only 12 years old and those 777s are among the sturdiest airliners flying. Plus the on ground crash only involved wingtip contact.

So my current favorite is some kind of terrorist action.

Especially if it's true that the report of the Italian passport theft resulted in some unknown person boarding this plane to China. People are not trying to get into China illegally. That would make no sense, apart from terror.

Wasn't Lockerbie similar though because I'm almost certain nobody came out to claim responsibility. Now granted, that was a govt. "funded" terrorist act of Libya but still, they didn't rush out to claim responsibility.

Vietnams Civil Aviation Authority says a navy plane has found parts suspected of belonging to the Malaysian Airlines plane, Reuters reports. The sighting has not yet been confirmed by Malaysian Airlines, which said an hour ago that it was waiting for information from search and rescue teams.

My National Geographic World Maps suggest that the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea are relative shallow along the probable flight path of MH370. Less than 100 meters. Much different than the recovery of AF447.

Well, they are either false reports or there is a lot more known than the authorities are telling. That part could be a culture thing in that they really don't give a damn about the media and the feeling of the American public with their insatiable appetite for "I want it right now". We saw a little of this in the 214 saga.

Wouldn't surprise me if the authorities know something and they are not disclosing it until they are able to do some investigating e.g. if it is a terrorist attack they may be trying to track down some of the people involved. Seems strange the lack of information coming out. I was surprised that the FlightAware data isn't really the flight path, it shows the flight went at least two and a half hours. I noticed they took of the altitude and speed data for the flight.

Is it still possible to breach the cockpit door? I thought they were inpenetrable after the post 9-11 redesign. Anybody know if the captain was single or married? I'm sure the Feds are checking into the crews' background. If the plane put down somewhere for a hostage situation, it would have had to have a complex plan including many other people on the ground, trying to keep 235 or so people alive. Demands would have been made public by now.

Well not if the pilots allow beautiful girls into the cockpit as the co pilot has done in the past. Bang there is the security breach facing the crew in the face. All is needed the wrong organisation to be on board wait for the correct time and calculate the correct moment when one of these ladies need the toilet, the rest is history.

Somebody would have to fly the plane. I don't think you advertize for a 777 qualified hijacker on craigslist. If the plan was to keep the plane somewhere, do you think the planners would bet the rent on the air crew cooperating? Unless it was an inside job.

On the other hand, the plane may be in small pieces somewhere in a big ocean.

Hong Kong’s Air Traffic Control Center reported on Mar 10th 2014 around 17:30L (09:30Z) that an airliner enroute on airway L642 reported via HF radio that they saw a large field of debris at position N9.72 E107.42 about 80nm southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, about 50nm off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea and about 281nm northeast of the last known radar position. Ships have been dispatched to the reported debris field.

I'm not here to argue either side, but the coordinates for the shipwreck are a degree west of the coordinates for the debris field. Also, when you compare the two on a map, the debris is SE of Ho Chi Min, while the shipwreck is S/SW. Furthermore, this debris field location is consistent with the one that a passenger on a PEK-KUL flight claims to have photographed SE of Ho Chi Minh

That there are multiple countries claiming the individuals listed on manifest are in fact alive and that stolen passports were used. These reports make pilot suicide much less likely.

They don't need to bother with stolen passports if they have one of the pilots agreeing to take down the plane. One pilot is sufficient. No need to add more operatives in the back to send them to their death. So pilot suicide is highly unlikely (despite mine and others speculating about the possibility).

The Guardian's graphics team has put together this map showing the flight path and the two main search sites:http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/10/1394448464928/967f1f35-06f3-4140-ba2f-509a95372457-486x540.jpeg

Sorry if someone has said this before. The 777 has live ground monitoring from the ground on many levels. The most telling might be the RR Trent engines. The are so many redundancy systems on that aircraft it would appear that they know more than the are telling the public at this point. Don't want to make assumptions, but something doesn't add up. Just my 2 cents.

I would imagine the info is there but they aren't going to release any data until it can be reviewed and analyzed, much like an FDR. Single points of it would fuel wild speculation, more than has been seen already.

Keep in mind that the ACARS data does not get sent every time there is an update, but rather on a schedule... Therefore a problem that happens and takes things down very quickly probably will not be reported. ACARS is a packet data system and is actually quite slow by comparison... Unlike the Air France when the pilots did not know they were having an aircraft in a stall, lots of data was sent via ACARS because they had plenty of time... This happened all at once, so they may not have any viable data at all, and if things happened all in the same second it would not have had time to transmit.

How ACARS Works:

1.) ACARS receives data (from A/C or Pilot)2.) ACARS then sends a request via VHF Com to ground station for permission to send data.3.) Once permission is received (they have to wait their turn, other a/c may be on at the same time).4.) Once permission has been received the ACARS will send the data to the ground station and wait for an Ok Acknowledgement. This could take several seconds. If another a/c was transmitting at the same time it may have to resend.

ACARS operates within the VHF Com System, usually COM 3. Many times there will be 5 or 6 communications between a ground station before all the data is transmitted, and this is not like the internet... It is like using a Bulletin Board System of yesterday at 1200 baud rate... The VHF Communication system cannot do it any faster.

Yes and No.. That is an option that most (not all) airlines opt for... With this Malaysia Airlines reputation, I would guess that they would have that feature. As far as redundant systems, the entire 777 has plenty...

This may be posted below don't know. But if true it could lend to some kind of wing failure at FL-350 with lots of gas maybe a bad repair job??? JAL 123 i think it was had the bulkhead blow out due to a bad patch job.

The tip of the wing of the same Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 broke off Aug. 9, 2012, as it was taxiing at Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai. The wingtip collided with the tail of a China Eastern Airlines A340 plane. No one was injured.

Link to story this came from. http://www.aol.com/article/2014/03/08/missing-malaysian-airline-plane-presumed-crashed/20845657/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D451930

There is some talk of it below but not much credence given to it as it was awhile back. The results and find will be interesting. There is still a big discrepancy of how far into the flight it was. I think it's safe to say that things are in a recovery mode though. Whatever did happen, it was catastrophic though.

The damage was only about 18 months ago. So it's probably not back in service for much more than a year.

Certainly could be that the repair was not properly done.

It's still my second best theory, after terrorism, if the stolen passports were not for terrorism, but for something else like drug smuggling.

It's still one of only 3 likely theories. The third being the suicide bit. So 2 possibilities involve the possibility of terrorism, and one is the plane breaking apart. If that one, with the 777's sturdiness, the likeliest cause of structural instability would be an improper repair.

Report: Civil aircraft spots suspected metal debris in search for missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, Vietnam says - @BloombergTVBREAKING [7:04pm]: According to VN Express, a commercial plane from out of Hong Kong has reported seeing several large pieces of debris 60km southeast of Vung Tau, a coastal city in Vietnam.

Could that be CX719 that's spotted it? Why is CX719 backtracking towards VN when it's only an hour from it's destination?

it seems to me that these are the possibilities for what happened to MAS370: either there was a catastrophic failure (although a fully fuel laden plane crashing would have created a fireball visible for miles and there have been no reports or debris); someone did try to get in the cockpit, turned off the transponder and after a fight with the crew the plane crashed (but no signs of that), or we are witnessing a new type of extortion: no point commandeering ships/tankers; more money can be made by high jacking planes and flying them under the radar to pretty much any small airport anywhere (777 requires about 1850m/6200ft). I have asked Google to uploaad recent images of the area so that folks like us can search for either debris or the aircraft. Does any one else share these thoughts?

Given the sparse pings of the ACARS system but no data, - a hypothesis to explore is: could this be this is another SwissAir Flight 11 – a fire in the Main Equipment Center (MEC) underneath the cockpit? If there’s a fire a smoke detector illuminates the ‘EQUIP COOLING OVRD’ message on the cockpit EICAS.

see diagram here: http://www.skybrary.aero/images/B772_MEC_FIRE.jpg

It’s possible after seeing a message the crew began a turnback to Malaysia. But if the fire continued it could knock out communications equipment, which would explain the loss of comms, and blow out the crew oxygen bottle which could cause rapid decompression and crew hypoxia if it went off through the fuselage and/or the fire could have damaged the fly-by-wire flight controls which could explain the continued flight.

While just a hypothesis, unfortunately a 777 had a fire in this exact location – luckily for them on the ground in London Heathrow in Feb 2007. See the UK AAIB report:http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/S2-2007%20N786UA.pdf

The report said, “…Prior to this accident the aircraft manufacturer was involved in investigating 11 in-service reports of power panel overheat events, three of which involved major damage to the panels. The affected panels were the P200 and P300, and the affected contactors were the RBTB, Auxiliary Power Breaker (APB)and the Primary External Power Contactor (PEPC).

must correct some things, cb's for ATC and TCAS are on the P11 overhead panels. acces by cocpit crew. the P110 and P210 have airground relays..fire to the P panels or melt down, have been in both these panels. in ELMS block 2 planes. mostly current mode couplers and 1 incident the APU feeder cable was burned away. this without warnings during flight.ifo based on 15yr avionics experience and findings with B777.

The AP reports that the Vietnamese Navy thinks they may have found some evidence just off the southern tip of their country: "Vietnamese Air Force planes have spotted two oil slicks which they suspect may have come from the missing airplane, AP reported. The Air Force said the slicks were discovered off the southern tip of Vietnam and resemble the kind of trail left by fuel from a jetliner."http://rt.com/news/malaysia-airlines-plane-beijing-570/

Wow - still missing - thought I'd wake up to news but I see they are still searching - so I'll provide my own update - the news services kinda suck.

http://www.nst.com.my/ seems to be the most updated news site - noted is one person - an Italian whose name appears on the flight manifest - did not board the flight - so either there is one less person on the plane, or someone unidentified as yet???

Photo; confirmation of last known location; http://i.imgur.com/ikl7rNi.jpg which puts the aircraft in open water between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Photo; last known location of aircraft; http://i.imgur.com/eKzlqEY.jpg

From 9M-MRO's wingtip strike when it collided with a China Eastern A340 and was repaired,

There was also the China Airlines 006 crew that became spatially disorientated 10 hours into the flight - badly damaged their aircraft but landed safely in USA; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_006

So that leaves a terror act (bomb), or some catastrophic and sudden event - so far a real unknown.

RIP and GodSpeed to those onboard, condolences to families and friends involved.

They say the passengers of that flight never knew what was going on. While that was probably true for most of them, a few awake and astute passengers probably noticed that the aircraft was descending and that was unusual at that point of the flight. And some, like me, probably the aircraft information screen up on the seat back and noticed the constantly stopping altitude, as it went from 38,000 feet to 0. You have to wonder if any of those people started asking questions in the cabin before the fatal crash.

Who say - what a load of rubbish. There is no indication of what happened and how. How quickly or slowly or whatever. The investigation, if they can locate wreckage/FDR, ADR or whatever it is called and CVR combined with ACARS broadcasts, weather etc..it will be at least a year before they can define probable cause. Even if it seems blatantly obvious all aspects have to be investigated thoroughly and eliminated. Some have reiterated AF447 which was faulty pitot tubes causing multiple Airbus ADIRU's to fail during bad weather. The pilots lost control not adhering to correct procedures. MH307 was clear weather flying in a Boeing with totally different systems. Unfortunately we will know nothing comforting for the families and can only hope and wish it was not distressing for the passengers.

Nothing could be confirmed about the passengers of FT 447 either. Without visual reference especially in turbulence in the dark the body can't discern the difference between a 90% roll and a 15% roll. It's especially worse with consecutive motion. You can not assume anything that you can't prove therefor as per MH307 we can only hope that there was no distress to the passengers of the past Ft 447 either. I guess you are entitled to opinion but I like to stay with the facts or solid reasoning based on facts. Dredging from memory there was loss of cabin pressure on 447 so could that have meant lessening stress on the passengers? We honestly don't know. I have studied too many crashes so that is dangerous "information"to pass on either.

There was no loss of cabin pressure on 447. Somebody looking at the information console on their display would have noticed the altitude dropping, just like they noticed in the cockpit. You are right about feeling the difference in a roll, especially if it is constant, the Gs will stay the same. But it is different for changes in altitude. The feeling of losing altitude is not normal during cruise flight and some of the passengers certainly would have noticed.

Apparently this photo/link was taken by a passenger on another MH flight from KUL to Beijing the next day. Reportedly 90 minutes out of KUL showing the debris field. If its true its kinda sad how they can't find this, seems pretty obvious (again, IF its real). I don't think this is a repost but sorry if it is.

Just to say something. I love how the community is digging into this incident instead of being spoof fed information from public outlets. 10 year back all this wouldn't have been possible. There are 2 obvious groups of information. One is centralized and that would be official reports. And the other is open source and that would be from communities like this. Yes there is a lot of bullshit in such communities but lets not throw the baby out with the water.

According to local news, the airplane had crashed in Malaysian airspace, a short while before it entered Vietnamese airspace. Radio contact was down before the airplane entered Vietnamese FIR. Unfortunately, there came no miracle, it didn't land in Nanming (the Malaysia Airlines said so). Vietnam has already sent search and rescue ships to the estimated location.

As much as I hate to speculate I think there are three possibilities. First, another AF447 type of mid-flight stall, though in perfect weather I doubt it. The second, which could be possible, is a mechanical failure or an in-flight breakup for whatever reason. This would explain why little transmission was heard from the plane before and after the moment of disaster. The third would be some sort of terrorism or violence that happened. This sort of reminds me of China Airlines 611 that just disappeared over the South China Sea a few years back b/c of air-frame disintegration, though I don't see how that'd happen here.

My first thoughts.. With all the backup systems to loose all COM's. Transponders, and other forms of communications is next to impossible without some warnings. The systems are setup to where they can even communicate when on battery if they even lost both batteries, so they would have at least been able to get out a MayDay... or "I think we got a problem"...

The only question seemingly unanswered with fact or speculation is what happened between 01:20 (MH comms contact lost - also time of last location recorded by internet radar trackers like flightradar24 & flightaware) and 02:40 (last radar contact by Subang air traffic control) - both event times come from Malaysia Airline announcements.

It is germane to note that all day yesterday the Malaysia Airline announcements consistently stated that Subang air traffic control lost radar contact with MH370 at 02:40. However today's Malaysia Airlines announcements mention that "we" last had contact at 01:30.

An hour+ is a lot of additional flight time! Where did MH370 go? In that time it could almost have reached the southern Philippines.

Stolen passports, no crash debris....... This is continuing to look more and more like a "hijacking".........

Lines of the time zone in Southeast Asia aren't relatively straight as here in US. There is a zigzag in the line between Malaysia and Vietnam, so the difference might just be due to the local time zones used. 1:30 AM in Vietnam is 2:30 AM in Malaysia. I don't know. http://www.worldtimezone.com/wtz014.php

Did the 9M-MRO landed in Tawi-tawi (RPMN) that's the southern most airport in the Philippines that I know? The runway has been upgraded long enough to land a Airbus 300. I'm just speculating, too. We landed in Zamboanga City airport before enroute to Bandar Seri Begawan but Tawi-tawi wasn't long enough to land at least a 737 yet.

Stolen passports, no crash debris? How come Flightware don't show flight path of 9M-MRO where it ended. Does flightware rely on the aircraft's transponder?

what if they dumped fuel simulating an impact with water to divert everyones attention from something much larger? could this explain lack of debris? a missing 777, along with 227 souls is not a good scenario for anyone. could the plane have even flown somewhere... undetected? perhaps no signals that we know of from the plane could mean they weren't ever activated in the first place.

many missing pieces to this puzzle... very curious to see how this plays out.

As for it being diverted, it seems to me that you would need at least a 5000' paved runway to land a 777 on without "breaking" it. Wouldn't you? They aren't puddle jumpers. I would suspect that there aren't that many runways in that area where a landing wouldn't be noticed and tracked.

This kind of speculation really does not help anything, and if the news media gets hold of it, it could actually be harmful as authorities would have to tie up resources to track down the source of the reports, and families would get a really wrong idea. There is zero reason to think that somebody snuck off with a 777 en route on a scheduled flight and hid it somewhere.

This is a rehash from last night's news. The pic was taken by a search plane (not reported in this article) in fading light (not reported in this article) and that why need to send rescue ships to confirm that the 2 pieces of debris she anything to do with the plane (also not reported in the article).

Unlikely. At the most, after flying west for an hour then turning back east, with 6.5 hours of fuel remaining onboard, You're looking at Colombo, Sri Lanka at the least, Goa or Mumbai, India at the most. Definitely wouldn't make Africa without stopping to refuel.

After talking to some friends on another website, looking at a map and reading through some of the rumors and a small amount of research it makes sense to me that if there was a problem with the plane they were probably trying to make it to Sultan Ismail Petra but came up short.

Will take awhile; but debris pattern should quickly show if the fuselage was intact on impact or not. If not, then debris would have to be brought up and tested. I think a lot will depend on the water depth at the site.

Advanced divers can go that deep, especially using rebreather gear, or with exotic air mixtures. (It's called "technical diving" and is a specialized skill). The question, though, will be visibility issues, in the specific location.

The airline also announced the last known location of the doomed flight was 06.5515 longitude, 103.3443 latitude — an area of the South China Sea, roughly 100 miles northeast of the Malaysian port city of Bachok and several hundred miles northeast of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, according to Google Maps. NBC News First published March 10th 2014, 9:19 pm

Did anyone see this?"Warning of ‘possible terrorist attack on China’ received by Taiwan days before Malaysia Airlines jet vanished"http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1445314/warning-possible-terrorist-attack-china-received-taiwan-days-malaysia

Simple. They've found nothing in the immediate vicinity of where they believe MAS370 went down.

So assume that it didn't go down, and obviously didn't make it to ZBAA. By the time it hit the site where they lost contact, that was what.. 2 hours into the flight? If so, they had 7.5 hours of fuel onboard. 2 hours in leaves them roughly 5.5 hours of fuel left. Using the place they lost contact as the center, you could draw a circle around that center, based on the distance of however long 5.5 hours of fuel could fly them. That would be the maximum amount of area they would need to search. That could get them as far north as Beijing, as far west as Chennai, or Sri Lanka, and as far south as Bali. we know they turned to a 330 heading before falling off the scopes, so that puts them going towards Myanmar or Bangladesh. Hence why they are starting their search in that direction.

It is now generally accepted that the plane had traveled about an hour when it went missing. The confusion early on suggesting a potential 2-hour elapse of flight time prior to loss of contact, was likely due to the time zone difference between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Even better. That stretches that radius out even further for the maximum area they would need to search. Since some of that could reach land, I don't know if they checked into suitable airports that could take a B772 landing there.

Bangkok, Phuket, Dhaka, Chennai, Colombo, Bali, Timor, and it's a stretch, but Darwin would even be within range.

Granted, ATC would have piped up and said something, but that does help them with widening the search.

I am a member of this website because I have a flying phobia. I fly about twice a year and use flight aware while on the plane to track my flight. Stories like this make me even more terrified, yet I'm drawn to them. It's quite a mystery too so certainly that too is keeping my interest. All those commenting who really do seem to be aviation enthusiasts... Will this keep you from flying? are you as scared as I am ?

You should remember, that as we discuss the investigation of this incident, how rare these accidents are.

In decades of flying, the 777 has only been in 2 accidents with fatalities (if this turns out that the Malaysia plane did in fact crash resulting in one or more deaths). The other was the Asiana 214 crash at SFO last July that resulted in 3 deaths.

There are so many millions of flights every year, and nearly every single one ends just fine.

Question for the pros: isn't dispatch/operations control able to track their aircrafts by GPS? If trucking fleets have GPS installed to track all their activity why wouldn't airlines have that as well? Thanks.

Looking for opinions... I think I know how to make a 777 to totally disappear without a trace... Opinions please!

Suppose it was taken over by Hijackers/Terrorist. They then take over the cockpit and kill everyone onboard. 2nd they smooth land the plane on the water like Scully did in the Hudson and keeping the plane in tack, committing suicide let the plane sink... All the floatables would be contained in the fuselage... The fuel tanks being almost full and sealed fuel caps would explain why there is no oil slick... Or at least not yet, Once the plane is found, then the terrorist group will claim victory, The longer it takes the more attention it will draw and bigger victory for the HiJackers... Also, with that much fuel, they could have turned the a/c off course to further delay things. Can anyone think of anything else... The pilot could have even been in on the entire scheme.

Nothing else seems to be likely either... To use a phrase from Star Trek Mr. Spock: "If you have looked at the most most probable cause, it may be the least probable cause". Paraphrased, but you get the jest of it.

It would take a lot of resources. Intimate 777 expertise to know what all to shut off, radar coverage by multiple countries' military to avoid, collusion at the originating airport. Say you did gain control and silence the craft, drop to low elevation to go under radar etc, what would be the range with fuel on board? Try to envision shoreside landing spot where nobody would notice within that range.

They were estimated to have 5 hours on board... They would have had a min of 3 hours to work with... Not thinking of bring it on shore.. talking about ditching it like Capt Scully did with Airbus on the Hudson after he lost both engines... Then just let it sing all in one piece.

At some point someone should start looking at remote landing options within 7.5hrs flight time of Gulf of Thailand. I think is pretty clear this plane didn't go down in the Gulf of Thailand. Like it or not hijacking is becoming more and more likely!!

I have a question that I am sure someone on this site can answer. When I was in the Air Force our radar had both raw radar image, i.e. the "blip" (Even though we all know it doesn't make any sound.) and the IFF info from the transponder. I remember, and this is where I may be way out in left field, that the FAA ONLY used IFF, i.e. transponder data and NO real raw radar image. If this is still true today what would happen if you're flying along and someone turns the transponder off. With no raw radar image the ATC controller screen goes blank because you have no transponder info, at least for that one aircraft. Is this true today? Does ATC ONLY use transponder info and no raw radar "blip"?

Best I know, they use them both as they are 2 separate functions. Radar will show you that something is there. Transponder will tell you what it is. At least that's how I think it is. To tell you the truth, I am not sure myself, but there are some controllers on this site that can give an exact answer.

I understand and agree with what you said Joe. I know the transponder sends digital data such as aircraft ID, and altitude. I also know it is displayed on the controllers screen coinciding with the radar blip, i.e. the echo return. My question is 2 part. Does the FAA, and other agencies, still use the radar return, i.e. the echo AND the transponder data or do they just use the transponder digital data only? If they only use the transponder data what happens on the controllers screen? Doesn't the aircraft "disappear" if the transponder is turned off?

I know they are two separate functions and that is why I asked the question. Does the FAA still use the radar "blip" or just transponder info only.

I remember the equipment we had in the Air Force there was an alignment procedure you went through to make sure the raw radar data, i.e. the "blip" and the IFF/transponder info coincided on your screen at the same point. If the pilot turned their transponder off then the only thing the controller saw was the raw radar return. In fact may times, as a training exercise, the controllers had to handle aircraft only using raw radar returns, no transponder info.

So my question remains, what happens if the transponder is turned off? What does the ATC controller see on their screen?

I'm beginning to believe if it was terrorism, it was the 5 passengers and their "removed" baggage rather than the false passport duo. Though their tickets were purchased suspiciously by an Iranian contact and in cash, if its true they were originally booked on Qatar/Ethiad flights, I don't believe they would have wanted to make a drastic airline and route change at the last minute if they wanted to target a specific flight. There are plenty of other reasons to pay for a ticket in cash and use false passports, which are still probably 110% illegal, that don't involve blowing up an airliner.

This question popped up in my mind : 5 passengers did not show for boarding, but were checked in with Luggage. SOP is then to remove the checked Luggage of these passengers.How was this done, so that the plane still could leave on its STD ? My yearlong experience tought me that looking for, and unloading Luggage, takes about an hour.

I think it's the first one since Asiana hit the seawall at SFO. An aircraft that is considered one of the safest ones flying just "dropping" out of contact with no communications is very rare. Also the location and world tensions contribute to the interest..

Its the circumstances around the incident and the aircraft type that make it stand out. A 777 has never just disappeared before. Plus it was at or near cruising altitude in clear weather. It's not another Russian made plane doing down in really bad weather.

Keeping in mid that if the PanAm wouldn't have been late, it would have been out over deep water instead of spread over Scotland. This one just got out there. It will all be interesting but I still think a whole lot more is known here than what is being told or there are way too many cooks in the kitchen, which is why so many different stories and theories are coming out.

Europe have ruled out the possibility that militants were involved in downing the aircraft, which suddenly disappeared while flying at 35,000 feet en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. http://goo.gl/Zy2fsF

Black boxes record valuable data, but in this day and age it is unbelievable (and embarrassing) that this data is not uploaded in real time to ground-based systems. Forensic data would be available immediately, not to mention the astronomical cost savings in recovery operations.

As a passenger today on a commercial flight with wi-fi internet, with my ipad and consumer software, I can log realtime flight data on a remote server on with gps coordinates, altitude, cabin pressure and temperature and g-force. It is unthinkable to me that the airline industry still relies on an outdated solution of hunting down a logging device that stays with the wreckage.

Maybe the pilots union is not crazy about having all this flight info databased (Pilot performance review: "Bob, looking at your last 100 flights, it looks like you overshot final approach 16 times, and your landings averaged 23% more gs than the type average for this airline..... )

My understanding is that black-box data is overwritten on every new flight unless an incident or accident is noted. Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong.

I agree with Gavin here. Really, the only data that would need to be uploaded to get a decent picture is GPS lat/long, airspeed, attitude, and altitude. All of the other metrics could be left on the black-boxes for in depth analysis.

Your understanding is correct on the overwrite. Regarding the other, the info is downloaded on ACARS. It may not be quite up to the minute on account of transmission time but should be able to get up to at least the last few minutes. If you will remember, AF had a whole bunch of data going into the final moments of 447. Look down here in this comment string for a post by sparkie951 for an explanation of how ACARS works. My whole point here is that there is a lot here that is not being told for whatever reason. In particular, if it did try and turn back then something was happening.

I'm not real sure of the overwrite procedure at the gate either. It may be done by mx after they download the last gap off ACARS but if all is OK, I know it is clean for next flight, so thy can have a new starting point, or at least that's how they did ours.

A lot of the ACARS messages from AF447 seemed to be in the 'something wrong' category. How much ACARS traffic is 'all AOK, nothing happening'. Could a the timing of a catastrophic event be calculated from the end of the ACARS stream?

I guess it could be calculated or an educated guess made, but personally, a catastrophic event is generally instantaneous. As you said, it could be a timing thing, depending on where the broadcast was.

So called "BlackBoxes" use hard disks as the record media and record continuously when operating. Data storage depends on the size of the drive. Flight Data Recorder records a lot of parameters. Newer units might use flash memory, I don't know.

Limitations on ACRS from Wikipedia: VHF communication is Line-of-sight propagation and provides communication with ground-based transceivers (often referred to as remote ground stations). The typical range depends on altitude, with a 200-mile transmission range common at high altitudes. Thus VHF communication is only applicable over land masses which have a VHF ground network installed.

aviate, navigate, then communicate. Obviously something happened and they were too busy trying to fly the plane to talk, as they had been trained to do. Whatever happened, it seems to be a good example of things going to hell in a handbasket.

"man by the name of Kazem Ali purchased the tickets While Ali made the initial booking by telephone, paid for the tickets in cash...security footage from the airport and said the men who traveled on the stolen passports "are not Asian-looking men."

In a plot to take down U.S. jetliners, a trial run overseas using Philippine Airlines Flight 434 resulted in an explosion in a critical area of the aircraft. The key to this incident was the lack of "credit" by Al-Qaeda. This was to preserve their bigger plan to attach 11 US lanes over the deep Pacific waters.

Obviously, I don't know how valid the source is. But multiple Malaysian newspapers apparently say the two men that purchased their tickets with false passports were asked to do so by an Iranian Contact. One of them: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=241062:mr-ali-cash-a-tehran-mobile-number-missing-flight-takes-on-sinister-twist-with-iranian-link-in-ticket-purchase&Itemid=2#.Ux3wkPldWSo

Hong Kong's Air Traffic Control Center reported on Mar 10th 2014 around 17:30L (09:30Z) that an airliner enroute on airway L642 reported via HF radio that they saw a large field of debris at position N9.72 E107.42 about 80nm southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, about 50nm off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea and about 281nm northeast of the last known radar position. Ships have been dispatched to the reported debris field.

Sad to hear this news. The 777 have a very good safety record. I hope the can find any survivor or at least the black boxes to know what happened.I find something strange here, the 777 have one of the best safety records in aviation but in less than a year 2 aircrafts crashed. What's going on??????

The pilot had over 18,000 thousand hours behind him along with his first office which had 2,800, between the both of them they had over 20,000 hours which is a heck of a lot...... especially the pilot... 18,000 hours is ALOT.... lets all hope for the best outcome...

Aside from initial pilot training that 2000 hours sleeping/resting, 14,000hours monitoring/looking at instruments and 2000 hours flying. (Round figures not inclusive of training and initial training to be a pilot). 2800 hours is peanuts in commercial flying terms. I can't recall how many accidents, most small or vintage aircraft where i.e."he was an excellent commercial pilot with 30,000 hours flying". Only takes one error however in this case regarding causal factors pilot "error" is not likely to be one.

Am I reading the flight data right? From what I can tell here (http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140307/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA/tracklog), where they are looking and saying the plane went down doesn't match flight data.Last known coordinates for flight MAS 370 place it over mountainous central Malaysia, 20 miles due east of Mount Tahan (see point on map, lat 4.7073 lon 102.5278). It had just switched from reporting to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport near where it had taken off in southwestern Malaysia to Penang International Airport in central west Malaysia. Nothing places the flight near Vietnam or Vietnamese airspace at the time it ceased communications.Based on this data, a much more likely location to search would be the Kenyir Lake region and surroundings.Or am I reading this wrong?

If you do a search for flightaware.com MAL370 and look at the flight data for past days, you'll see that each day it logs about 20-40 minutes of radar data before going dark, and then later in the flight each day it picks up another bit of data. it seems it's normal for the flight to log 20-40 minutes of radar data and then 'go dark' as far as publicly disclosed radar data is concerned. so when they say it flew for 2 hours, this radar data might not contradict it. take a look at http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140228/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA/tracklog

maybe it is just a speculation but italian media reports that the italian who appears on the passenger lists has contacted his parents in Italy saying he's in Thailand where his passport had been stolen months ago, maybe by someone who utilized it to board the plane, here's the link (in italian)http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/03/08/malaysia-scompare-volo-con-239-persone-litaliano-in-lista-sono-in-thailandia/906451/

In my opinion, Hijacking would be the most likely situation that occurd. Reasons-

- Before MH 370 lost contact with Air Traffic Control, another aircraft in the same airspace (30 miuntes ahead of the MH 370) was requested by Air Traffic Control to try to contact MH 370 with an emergency frequency. Contact was succesful, but was static and communication was broken. The other aircraft just heard "mumbbling" from the other side. A couple miunutes later, it dissapears.

- No distress call was made, I presume due to force of some "hijackers".

- The Aircraft started going off-course 10 miuntes before it dissapearing. The aircraft headed at 025 which is a bit too much to the right. The aircraft started making turns back the way they came from. Why was no distress call made in all this time?

I would rule out a mid-air explosion, the aircraft was acting suspicously 10 minutes before it dissapearing so any un-intentional possibilites can be ruled out.

This is just my opinion, I can be wrong but all information I have stated above is true.

Hijacking DOES NOT rule out a midair disintegration. Hijacker can have a bomb, which exploded intentionally or accidentally for any reason.

It would only widen the search area for fallen debris, as well as airfields that an hijacked airline could be landed within the circle of potential flight for the airliner in question from the last reported radar contact. Even then it's not so easy to hide a plane the size of a 777, if it had landed at some airstrip.

But why wouldn't one of the pilots squawk a hijack frequency? Why wouldn't we have heard from anyone on board? (Was the airliner equipped with wifi and/or airplane position following on the seat-back IFE?)

There are data reporting functions on the plane, so there are technical people that will have a better idea of what happened to the plane. There is a major visible search involving lots of planes and boats from many countries. So either those in a position to know have reason to believe that either the plane perished, or are using the search as a diversion while they look for the plane or involved individuals elsewhere, or pay a ransom or whatever.

I tend to go with highest probability of likelihood, which is that there isn't a conspiracy. By far the likeliest course of events involved the plane and its' occupants perishing over the sea.

Those involved in the search will eventually find evidence to corroborate whatever happened to the plane. The whole plane which isn't soneasy to hide, or more likely a piece of debris. The rest of us need to be patient, which will not be easy for some.

There are still discrepancies in the tracking times, and using the search as a diversion is really a possibility that has not been brought up. In all probability though, it is probably going to come down to a catastrophic failure of some kind for whatever reason and a debris field will be found and then this comment string will go to a "WHAT HAPPENED" until the boxes are found. The thing that is bothering me though is that with AF447, the basics were known fairly quick from the ACARS transmissions. No such release has been made here that I am aware of.